The Best Articles in Privacy
The most useful articles in Privacy from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Privacy Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved in Privacy by Refind users in 2023 so far.
- The Instagram ads Facebook won't show you
- How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps
- If you’re not terrified about Facebook, you haven’t been paying attention
- Stop talking about AI ethics. It’s time to talk about power.
- An Open Letter Against Apple's Privacy-Invasive Content Scanning Technology
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
Inside Cisco’s ‘Smart Office,’ Where 5,000 Data Points Are Constantly Collected
Cisco’s redesigned New York office is both a showcase of the company’s technology and an example of how it sees the workplace evolving. WSJ takes a tour to l...
How to ...?
How to Check Your Devices for Stalkerware
You deserve privacy. Here's how to check your phone, laptop, and online accounts to make sure no one's looking over your shoulder.
How to make your offline self harder to find online
Keep your personal information personal
«Our goal in this article is to help you condense your attack surface as much as possible.»
How to delete what Facebook knows about your life outside of Facebook
The "Off-Facebook Activity" tool lets you see — and somewhat control — what other sites and apps tell Facebook about you
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Privacy on Refind.
All the Data Apple Collects About You—and How to Limit It
Cupertino puts privacy first in a lot of its products. But the company still gathers a bunch of your information.
Black man wrongfully jailed for a week after face recognition error, report says
Lawyer says police didn't check man's height, weight—or the mole on his face.
Fed up with facial recognition cameras monitoring your every move? Italian fashion may have the answer
The red-headed man wearing what looks like the ultimate Christmas sweater walks up to the camera. A yellow quadrant surrounds him. Facial recognition software immediately identifies the man as ... a…
The FBI Identified a Tor User
No details, though: According to the complaint against him, Al-Azhari allegedly visited a dark web site that hosts “unofficial propaganda and photographs related to ISIS” multiple times on May 14,…
Cops Hacked Thousands of Phones. Was It Legal?
When police infiltrated the EncroChat phone system in 2020, they hit an intelligence gold mine. But subsequent legal challenges have spread across Europe.
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Privacy—all under 10 minutes.
The Instagram ads Facebook won't show you
Companies like Facebook aren’t building technology for you, they’re building technology for your data. They collect everything they can from FB, Instagram, and WhatsApp in order to sell visibility…
«Companies like Facebook aren’t building technology for you, they’re building technology for your data.»
An Open Letter Against Apple's Privacy-Invasive Content Scanning Technology
Read and sign the open letter protesting against Apple's roll-out of new content-scanning technology that threatens to overturn individual privacy on a global scale, and to reverse progress achieved…
«Apple's proposed technology works by continuously monitoring photos saved or shared on the user's iPhone, iPad, or Mac. One system detects if a certain number of objectionable photos is detected in iCloud storage and alerts the authorities.»
Stop talking about AI ethics. It’s time to talk about power.
We need to acknowledge both the politics and the physical impact that AI has on the planet, says scholar Kate Crawford in her new book.
«These are systems that produce profound and lasting geomorphic changes to our planet, as well as increase the forms of labor inequality that we already have in the world.»
A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?
Robot vacuum companies say your images are safe, but a sprawling global supply chain for data from our devices creates risk.
If you’re not terrified about Facebook, you haven’t been paying attention
Facebook and America are now indivisible, says the Observer writer who broke the Cambridge Analytica scandal – and the world is the sicker for it
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles in Privacy.
American Phone-Tracking Firm Demo’d Surveillance Powers by Spying on CIA and NSA
Anomaly Six, a secretive government contractor, claims to monitor the movements of billions of phones around the world and unmask spies with the press of a button.
«track the movements of billions of people via their phones with a constant stream of data purchased directly from Twitter.»
How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps
A Muslim prayer app with over 98 million downloads is one of the apps connected to a wide-ranging supply chain that sends ordinary people's personal data to brokers, contractors, and the military.
Police seize on COVID-19 tech to expand global surveillance
JERUSALEM (AP) — Majd Ramlawi was serving coffee in Jerusalem’s Old City when a chilling text message appeared on his phone. “You have been spotted as having participated in acts of violence in the Al…
Tax filing websites have been sending users’ financial information to Facebook
The Markup found that tax preparation services including TaxAct, TaxSlayer, and H&R Block have sent users’ personal financial information to Facebook through the Meta Pixel.
«The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how powerful institutions are using technology to change our society. Sign up for its newsletters here.»
Fair Game — Real Life
Commonly used by researchers and journalists, data scraping is an underacknowledged privacy concern
Thought Leaders
We monitor hundreds of thought leaders, influencers, and newsletters in Privacy, including:
zeynep tufekci
Complex systems, wicked problems. Society, technology, science and more. @Columbia professor. @NYTimes columnist. My newsletter @insight http://theinsight.org
Patrick Gray
Host of the Risky Business® podcast. Guests by invitation only. Mastadon: http://infosec.exchange/@riskybusiness
Gabriel Weinberg
CEO & Founder, @DuckDuckGo. Co-author, Super Thinking. Co-author, Traction. DMs open. Tweets auto-delete after a while.
Mozilla
We work to ensure the internet remains a public resource that is open and accessible to all. The nonprofit behind @Firefox. #BlackLivesMatter
briankrebs
Independent investigative journalist. Author of 'Spam Nation,' a NYT bestseller. Former Washington Post reporter. Mastodon: http://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs
Publications
We monitor hundreds of publications, blogs, newsletters, and news sources in Privacy, including:
The Intercept
Fearless, adversarial journalism. Join our newsletter to get our best investigative reporting delivered to you: http://interc.pt/newsletter
WIRED UK
The future as it happens. Subscribe today: http://wired.co.uk/subs/MWR19762
EFF
We're the Electronic Frontier Foundation. We defend your civil liberties in a digital world.
The Markup
We're watching Big Tech. Send tips: http://themarkup.org/tips. Subscribe: http://mrkup.org/Klaxon. Support our work: http://themarkup.org/donate. Mastodon: http://newsie.social/@themarkup
MIT Technology Review
Our in-depth reporting on innovation reveals and explains what’s really happening now to help you know what’s coming next. http://technologyreview.com/newsletters
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks 5 links from around the web for every user, tailored to the user’s interests. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
- In addition, our users save links from around the web using our Save buttons and our extensions.
- Our algorithm processes 100k+ new links every day and uses external signals to find the most relevant ones, focusing on timeless pieces.
- Our community of active users gets 5 links every day, tailored to their interests. They provide feedback via implicit and explicit signals: open, read, listen, share, add to reading list, save to «Made me smarter», «More/less like this», etc.
- Our algorithm uses these internal signals to refine the selection.
- In addition, we have expert curators who manually curate niche topics.
The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
How does Refind detect «timeless» pieces?
We focus on pieces with long shelf-lives—not news. We determine «timelessness» via a number of metrics, for example, the consumption pattern of links over time.
How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Which sources does Refind monitor in Privacy?
We monitor hundreds of sources in Privacy, including The Intercept, WIRED UK, EFF, The Markup, MIT Technology Review, and many more.
Who are the thought leaders in Privacy?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Privacy, including zeynep tufekci, Patrick Gray, Gabriel Weinberg, Mozilla, briankrebs.
Missing a thought leader? Submit them here
Can I submit a link?
Indirectly, by using Refind and saving links from outside (e.g., via our extensions).
How can I report a problem?
When you’re logged-in, you can flag any link via the «More» (...) menu. You can also report problems via email to hello@refind.com
Who uses Refind?
100k+ smart people start their day with Refind. To learn something new. To get inspired. To move forward. Our apps have a 4.9/5 rating.
Is Refind free?
Yes, it’s free!
How can I sign up?
Head over to our homepage and sign up by email or with your Twitter or Google account.